Tag Archives: Spanish

Plot Description: Children are all special and so are books. This bilingual book in English and Spanish celebrates both. It depicts children from diverse backgrounds reading and enjoying books alone or together and at the library. The children are shown listening to stories with their families and reading in various modes of transportation: cars, planes and trains. Children are also shown reading with pets. Then things get fantastical as children are shown reading where books can take their imaginations, such as riding an elephant, sitting in a whale’s mouth, riding in a submarine or in a hot air balloon with a giraffe. Then children are shown in bed reading to the moon and finally flying away with books.

Qualitative Reading Analysis: The book is bilingual Spanish and English, with the Spanish and English next to each other on the same page. The English section includes a few words that are left in Spanish and not translated. Students who do not speak Spanish will be unfamiliar with these words, but most will be able to determine meaning through context clues. The sentence structure is simple and compound. Register is casual and mostly familiar. Illustrations help readers imagine the events of the text, but are not necessary for comprehension. Figurative language is used to emphasize the power of books to transport readers. Metaphors are used to show some of the places readers can go with their imagination and a book. For example, there is an illustration of children reading in a hot-air balloon with a giraffe. The text says, ‘we read in a hot-air balloon,’ which is a metaphor for the children being transported on a hot-air balloon ride by reading a book.

Content Area: Reading, Literature

Content Area Standard:

English Language Arts Standards for Reading: Foundational Skills: Fluency: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.3.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

English Language Arts Standards for Reading: Literature: Craft and Structure: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.

Curriculum Suggestions: Have students find the places children read, according to the book. Ask them to share their favorite places to read. Have students look for unfamiliar vocabulary and then use context clues to work together to discover the meaning of the vocabulary. Have a classroom (or schoolwide) celebration of Children’s day/Book Day. Decorate the classroom for the event. Have students dress as their favorite storybook characters.

Plot Description: Marisol is a Peruvian-Scottish-American girl who embraces all the things about her that don’t match the way other people think they should. She is a bilingual English and Spanish speaker who has brown skin and red hair (like carrots her cousin says, like fire she counters). She is an artist and a soccer player who loves to wear polka dots and stripes together and eat peanut butter and jelly burritos. Marisol may not be conventional, but she learns to be proud of who she is and the things that make her unique.

Qualitative Reading Analysis: This is a bilingual book with the story in English on one side and Spanish on the other. The vocabulary is contemporary, familiar and conversational and the register is casual. The sentences are primarily simple and compound, with some complex phrases. The convention is straightforward and easy to understand. Text features such as bold and italics guide the reader. The theme is clear and revealed early in the text. It explores a single them that will be familiar to many readers. It is a celebration of uniqueness and encourages readers to be proud of the things that make them different. There are some references to cultural elements of Marisol’s multiple ethnicities and some of the Spanish words mixed into the English text will be unfamiliar to non-Spanish speakers, but they are explained or simple to understand from the context of the story. The use of Spanish words mixed into the English text shows the reader the two sides of Marisol that are mixed into one, thus she sometimes speaks in English or Spanish and sometimes in both.

Content Area: English, Language Arts, Spanish

Content Area Standard: English Language Arts Standards for Reading: Literature

Key Ideas and Details: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

Curriculum Suggestions: Have the class mark a world map with the countries their ancestors are from. Have the students make a puzzle of the different interests that make them who they are, illustrating their preferences on a puzzle template, such as favorite hobbies, books, what they want to be when they grow up, etc. Have students find the Spanish equivalent to vocabulary from the story, using the book to help them. Students read another Marisol McDonald book and compare and contrast the key details of the two stories.